Beginners Mindset

You would have probably heard this story a number of times, yet it is such a powerful message worth pondering over.

“There was a Japanese Zen master. One day, he was visited by a university professor, who was curious to know about Zen.As a welcome courtesy, the Zen master served the professor a cup of tea.As he poured, the tea, the professor’s cup became full, but the Zen master kept on pouring. As the professor watched the cup overflow, he could no longer contain himself and busted out saying, “Master, don’t you see the cup is full and the tea is overflowing. No more will go in!”The Zen master turned to the professor and said, “Like this tea cup, you too are full of your own opinions and perceptions. How can I show you Zen, unless you first empty your cup?”

So, the beginner’s mind is actually a concept from Zen Buddhism called Shoshin: “Having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would.”

The Beginner’s Mind is an invitation to approach everything with a fresh and open mind. It is about trying to forget what we know about a subject and view it as if completely fresh – with no expertise, experience or opinions.There’s significant value of approaching problems as a novice, even if you already know a lot about them. It makes you more willing to experiment, to ask ‘why’ and question the status quo.

A Zen philosopher, Shunryu Suzuki says, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”I feel that there is profound truth in this statement. We have heard that a number of times, wise solutions to complex problems can come from a layman. It is just that because, he is approaching it totally fresh without any preconceived ideas.

So, in order to develop such a beginner’s mindset, we first need to be humble, irrespective of our age, expertise and experience. Creativity expertssay,“the way to keep our brain sharp, is by learning new things, which is in no way related to our scope of work. It is through fusion of different ideas, that we become more creative.” It is called cross functional intelligence. In a world where we have more complex problems to solve, this sort of a thinking, can determine the success of a person.

So, keep learning new things. Learn a new language, a new musical instrument, a new art form or anything that is totally different from your profession. Every new learning enriches us in a unique way. It helps us to develop new perspectives. And as we keep learning and updating ourselves, we realise how much we have missed not knowing something for so long.

I am someone, who likes to keep learning new things. So, I still keep attending training programmes and workshops, where there are a large number of youngsters attending. Some of my friends, ask me, “Don’t you feel shy to go and learn along with youngsters?”. This thought didn’t come to my mind, till someone actually asked it. Age should not be detrimental to learn new things. In fact, the best way to feel young, is by keeping on learning, something new.

I have heard this interesting quote, “When was the last time, you did something for the first time.” What a nice question to ask. We can rephrase the question a bit. “When was the last time, I learned something new?” So, when you approach this question with a beginner’s mindset, you are definitely going to gain a lot.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com